To St. John de Crevecoeur Paris, January 15, 1787

DEAR SIR,

-- I see by the Journal of this morning, that they
are robbing us of another of our inventions to give it to the
English. The writer, indeed, only admits them to have revived what
he thinks was known to the Greeks, that is, the making the
circumference of a wheel of one single piece. The farmers in New
Jersey were the first who practised it, and they practised it
commonly. Dr. Franklin, in one of his trips to London, mentioned
this practice to the man now in London, who has the patent for making
those wheels. The idea struck him. The Doctor promised to go to his
shop, and assist him in trying to make the wheel of one piece. The
Jersey farmers do it by cutting a young sapling, and bending it,
while green and juicy, into a circle; and leaving it so until it
becomes perfectly seasoned. But in London there are no saplings.
The difficulty was, then, to give to old wood the pliancy of young.
The Doctor and the workman labored together some weeks, and
succeeded; and the man obtained a patent for it, which has made his
fortune. I was in his shop in London, he told me the whole story
himself, and acknowledged, not only the origin of the idea, but how
much the assistance of Dr. Franklin had contributed to perform the
operation on dry wood. He spoke of him with love and gratitude. I
think I have had a similar account from Dr. Franklin, but cannot be
quite certain. I know, that being in Philadelphia when the first set
of patent wheels arrived from London, and were spoken of by the
gentleman (an Englishman) who brought them, as a wonderful discovery,
the idea of its being a new discovery was laughed at by the
Philadelphians, who, in their Sunday parties across the Delaware, had
seen every farmer's cart mounted on such wheels. The writer in the
paper, supposes the English workman got his idea from Homer. But it
is more likely the Jersey farmer got his idea from thence, because
ours are the only farmers who can read Homer; because, too, the
Jersey practice is precisely that stated by Homer: the English
practice very different. Homer's words are (comparing a young hero
killed by Ajax to a poplar felled by a workman) literally thus: `He
fell on the ground, like a poplar, which has grown smooth, in the
west part of a great meadow; with its branches shooting from its
summit. But the chariot maker, with his sharp axe, has felled it,
that he may bend a wheel for a beautiful chariot. It lies drying on
the banks of the river.' Observe the circumstances which coincide
with the Jersey practice.

It is a tree growing in a moist place,
full of juices and easily bent.

It is cut while green.

It is
bent into the circumference of a wheel.

It is left to dry in that
form.

You, who write French well and readily, should write a line
for the Journal, to reclaim the honor of our farmers.